William J. Brady

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William J. Brady in 1872, Territorial Legislature photograph
William J. Brady in 1872, Territorial Legislature photograph

William J. Brady (16 August 1829 - 1 April 1878), was the sheriff of Lincoln County during the Lincoln County Wars in New Mexico, United States. He was killed in an ambush in which Billy the Kid took part.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Brady was born in Cavan, Ireland and grew up as a potato farmer like his father. He attended the newly opened local school and graduated in 1844.[1] After the death of his father he was involved in local politics, but after the potato famine he left for America. [2]

[edit] Military

Upon arrival in New York, July 1851, Brady enlisted in the U.S. Army and was assigned to the mounted rifles. He spent five years in southern Texas achieving the rank of sergeant and upon reenlistment was transferred to Fort Craig, New Mexico in 1856. [3] His enlistment was up in March 1861 and he was discharged at Fort Craig, only to enroll in the New Mexico Volunteers as a first lieutenant in Albuquerque the following August. He fought at the Battle of Glorieta Pass and stayed with his unit when it was incorporated into the First Regiment, New Mexico Cavalry. After the Confederate troops left New Mexico, he was assigned as a recruiting officer in Polvadera, Socorro County. On 16 November 1862 he married Maria Bonifacia Chaves, a widow from Corrales, and the following year was assigned as the acting commander at Fort Stanton, and in 1864 was confirmed as commandant there. He led several successful campaigns against the Navajo and Apache Indians and served as commandant at several other New Mexico forts until his discharge in October 1866 at the brevet rank of Major.

[edit] Lincoln

Brady and his wife and children settled on a ranch on the Rio Bonito, four miles east of the town of Lincoln. He was first elected Sheriff of Lincoln County in 1869 and took office in January 1870. [4] In 1871 Brady was elected as the first representative from Lincoln County to sit in the Territorial Legislature. [5] He lost his seat in the next election, and wasn’t again elected to public office until 1876 when he again ran for sheriff. [6]

[edit] Jail

Although Lincoln sheriffs had tried for eight years to get money from the county for a jail, Brady finally got funds ($3,000)[7] to build an underground holding area in 1877. Prior to that, the sheriff used the military jail at Fort Stanton. The new jail was twenty feet wide by thirty feet long, and ten feet deep. It was lined with rough logs and divided into two cells with a ladder and a trap door for access.[8] Light, when available, was by candles.[9] Conditions were so bad and escapes so common that the county anted up for a real jail in 1880. One of the causes in the lack of confidence in Sheriff Brady was the escape in November 1877 from this hole of Jessie Evans and his gang of rustlers.[10]

[edit] Lincoln County War

Brady sided with the Murphy-Dolan faction in the Lincoln County Wars which put him up against Alexander McSween, Billy the Kid and the Regulators. Lawrence Murphy owned the mercantile (the dry goods store) in Lincoln and Brady owed him money. In the Spring of 1877, Sheriff Brady was beaten up by two bravados, believed to be John Tunstall’s cowboys, in the middle of the main street of Lincoln. However, who they were has never been confirmed, and it was only specualted that they worked for Tunstall. [11]

On 1 April 1878, Regulators Jim French, Frank McNab, John Middleton, Fred Waite, Henry Newton Brown and Billy the Kid ambushed Sheriff Brady and his deputies on the main street of Lincoln. They fired on the four men from behind an adobe wall. Brady died of at least a dozen gunshot wounds,[12] and Deputy George W. Hindman was hit twice, fatally.[13] Once the shooting stopped, Billy the Kid and Jim French broke cover and dashed to Sheriff Brady's body, either to get his arrest warrant for Alex McSween or to retrieve Billy’s rifle that Brady had kept. A surviving deputy, Billy Matthews, wounded both men with a rifle bullet that passed through each of their legs, but they escaped anyway. Brady was first replaced by John Copeland as sheriff, but when Copeland refused to take sides in the conflict, opting to deal with both sides accordingly, Murphy used his influence to have him replaced by George Peppin.

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Lavash Brady pp. 15-17
  2. ^ Lavash Brady p. 18
  3. ^ Lavash Brady pp. 20-21
  4. ^ Lavash Brady p. 34
  5. ^ Lavash Brady pp. 35-36
  6. ^ Lavash Brady p. 52
  7. ^ Fulton, Maurice G. (1968) History of the Lincoln County War University of Arizona Press, Tucson, AZ, SBN 8165-0052-5 p. 89
  8. ^ Ball, Desert lawmen p. 109
  9. ^ Las Vegas Gazette quoted in Ball, Desert lawmen p. 110
  10. ^ Ball, Desert lawmen p. 110
  11. ^ Ball, Desert lawmen p. 200
  12. ^ The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers... Sheriff William Brady
  13. ^ The Officer Down Memorial Page Remembers... Deputy Sheriff George Hindman

[edit] References

  • Ball, Larry D. (1992) Desert Lawmen: the high sheriffs of New Mexico and Arizona, 1846-1912 University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, ISBN 0-8263-1346-9
  • Lavash, Donald R. (1986)Sheriff William Brady: Tragic Hero of the Lincoln County War Sunstone Press, Santa Fe, NM, ISBN 0-86534-064-1
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